Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Co. of Canada is introducing a new approach to developing specialty insurance products and services called knowledgeworks. The firm refers to it as “an insurance think-tank”.

Royal & Sun Alliance says the knowledgeworks team will focus exclusively on providing insurance solutions that demand the expertise of highly trained underwriters.

Part of the challenge of catering to unique insurance risks is being able to guide customers through the process of developing an appropriate insurance solution.

“We want to provide the same degree of service that specialists in other mission-critical areas have offered their customers,” said Jim McDonald, spokesperson for Royal & Sun Alliance’s knowledgeworks team.

“When you climb Mt. Everest, you put your fate in the hands of expert guides to get you to the summit safely. Who do you trust when you need to properly ensure that your customer’s unique and specialty risks are properly insured? We want to play that role.”

Customers will come from a variety of sources. In many cases customers will be other insurers that simply do not have the expertise or infrastructure to handle specialty products and services effectively.

“The knowledgeworks team enables its business partners to focus on their core business and broaden the products and services available to their customers. In many cases, knowledgeworks will be invisible to the broker and customers — with the kudos going to the business partner,” said McDonald.

The first product to be launched by the knowledgeworks think-tank is yachtworks. The focus will be on pleasure-craft that require specialized underwriting knowledge and therefore do not fit neatly into a personal lines environment.

Other products will be developed in the coming months, with consulting and engineering services also being introduced.